The Paris France Temple is rising as a prophecy in fulfillment.

Ashly Stone was in rehab—again. Despite repeated efforts to overcome her vices and addictions, she seemed to be stuck in a spin cycle. But then something unlikely happened...

Do you ever get defensive when talking to your spouse? Does your spouse get defensive with you? Defensiveness is one of the most common negative communication patterns I see when I counsel couples. The problem is that defensiveness tends to be one of the key communication patterns leading to arguments.

The following article originally ran on LDS Living in September 2014.

Stuart Edge has gotten into the spirit of giving this Christmas season, something he shared in this video hosted on Mormon.org.

Photo from Mormon Newsroom Have you ever wondered what life was like for your ancestors? What the most popular song was the year you were born? What you might look like in the clothes your favorite grandparent used to wear?

As Derek watched all the other missionaries milling about the Provo MTC, he felt like a fish out of water.

Standing up for our beliefs doesn’t always make us the most popular people in the school/office/crowd. The mere fact that we admit we are Latter-day Saints may pre-dispose some to dislike us. As we become “everyday missionaries” and make others aware of our church membership, the chance of being disliked may increase. Our membership in the church automatically says something about our morals, our standards and our values. Our morals, standards and values are anything but popular in today’s world.

The following article originally ran on LDS Living in September 2015.

In this Mormon Matters episode, we have the privilege of having a wonderfully fresh and engaging discussion with Richard Bushman, a well-known and distinguished historian who from 1989 until a few years ago also served as a stake patriarch. He, in interaction with podcast host Dan Wotherspoon and panelist Jared Anderson, generously offers his perspectives on just what patriarchal blessings are–and what they are not. In what way are they “prophecy”–and he does not back down from that term!–but also what are our responsibilities in working with all words of God, even prophecy (which, he is very adamant about, are all mediated by human minds)? How might someone re-frame what they see as a patriarchal blessing’s promise–such as being alive at the time of Christ’s return–that has “failed”? He also shares much about his own calling to be a patriarch and what the experience of giving patriarchal blessings is like for him. He explores his sense of what it means to declare someone’s “lineage” through one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Jared Anderson, in this section as well as an earlier framing of biblical precedents for patriarchal blessings and prophecies offers a wonderful reminder of the history of Israel and the “lost tribes,” along with fascinating insights into certain lines of argument in today’s biblical scholarship that both complicate and possibly free up for some people expectations about literal descent or what is going on when the Bible seems to contain passages that predict the future. Finally, the panelists discuss the idea of pre-existence in Mormon thought that often finds its way into patriarchal blessings through the words of some patriarchs who declare things about recipients’ “valiancy” during the War in Heaven or refer to some other aspect of pre-earth existence. If some people are declared to have been especially valiant, is the flip-side true that many others were not? Evil has often been done with such ideas, so this notion offers a good opportunity for an important wrestle–one that this discussion delivers.